


The Company We Kept

by gotemsayingwow



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2001), Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Somewhere between chapters 135 and 136 of the manga, tohru's shampoo is literally always strawberry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotemsayingwow/pseuds/gotemsayingwow
Summary: Sleeping alone is hard.
Relationships: Honda Tohru & Sohma Kyou, Honda Tohru/Sohma Kyou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 171





	The Company We Kept

He can’t sleep. The first thing he notices is just how goddamn cold it is in his room. He puts on a sweatshirt, but it’s still cold. He grabs another blanket from the linen closet in the hall, but he just can’t get warm. And he knows it has absolutely nothing to do with the temperature.

It’s the fact that this is the first time he’s tried to sleep in his room for months. When Kyo Sohma retired for the evening, after eating takeout with his two male cousins, he just stared at the futon on the floor. He half expected it to be covered in a layer of dust from his absence.

He had to admit that his girlfriend’s real, actual bed was _much_ more comfortable than the thin mat on the floor. The bnlankets, though pink and ridiculously girly, were so soft and inviting. Her pillows were luxurious. He said a silent _thank you_ in his mind to Shigure every time he laid down in it to fall asleep. If he thought about it more than just at surface level, it was a ridiculous and extravagant, and slightly creepy, gift. But dammit if it wasn’t comfortable.

Of course, the company he kept in that bed made all of the difference. He could have been laying on a cement floor, but if he was with her he would be comfortable. The silky sheets and fluffy pillows were just an added bonus.

They hadn’t spent a night apart from each other in months. After she’d invited him to stay one night in June, he kept coming back. In fact, she made it abundantly clear he had an open invitation to stay when she whispered to him the morning he first woke up next to her “I could do that every night for the rest of my life.”

He didn’t expect that _every night for the rest of her life_ actually only meant three months before they’d be separated at night again. When her friends cornered her after school and guilted her into having a slumber party at Hanajima’s house, she couldn’t exactly say no. He hung his head in disappointment, taking much delight in the disappointment she mirrored in her eyes.

Uotani and Hanajima wouldn’t even let her stop by the house after school to grab some clothes. They just hauled her off by her shoulders, leaving him to wave bleakly at their backs as they marched away from him. Initially, he chuckled at their kidnapping scheme, but once he crossed the threshold into the house alone, he realized exactly how miserable of an evening it would be.

He sulked through dinner, which he didn’t get to cook with her. The takeout sushi was about as bland as his company. When he excused himself for the evening, thanking Shigure for purchasing dinner, Shigure offered him a knowing smile and said “Hope you don’t get too chilly tonight. It’s supposed to be colder than usual.”

_Damn it to hell_ , he thought, flipping his pillow over for the fifth time. He pressed his face into the pillow wondering if he couldn’t suffocate himself to sleep. _Or maybe to death._ It would certainly be better than having to spend a night away from her.

He shook the morbid thoughts from his head, imagining her chastising him for thinking in such a way. God, he missed her.

Every night they would retire to their separate rooms, waiting until the house went completely still. Tohru sat in the dark, staring out the window at the stars until he popped his head into the window frame. After he slid out of his room and carefully shuffled his way to her window, she invited him in through hers. It was ridiculous. He probably could have just walked out of his door and into hers. But something about the secrecy and deviance made it seem more romantic. Or, at least, he imagined it did.

He slept better next to her, he decided. Surely it was just her presence and not the fact that they spent the hour before they fell asleep completely wrapped up in one another. It certainly couldn’t have been the way he now intimately knew her body. How he could elicit soft sighs of pleasure, never above a whisper, or how she could do the same for him, her soft hands tracing every contour of his body. It wasn’t the fact that, in the months he had begun coming into her room, she had traded her traditional pajamas for soft, silky nightgowns. Or the fact that her cheek resting against his bare chest made him feel at once secure and safe. Or the fact that his hand tucked neatly into the curve of her waist or on the crest of her breast made sure she wasn’t far away.

He groaned quietly into his pillow. He was so goddamn weak. He spent 18 years of his life sleeping alone and after three months it had been completely undone.

After another hour of fitfully rolling around on the floor, trying to get comfortable, he couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to go directly to Hanajima’s house, nevermind the late hour, and pull her out, dragging her home and reinstating her position next to him. Instead, he slid through his door and quietly shuffled down the hall to her room.

He was acutely aware of how pathetic he was as he slipped between the blankets, resting his head on her pillow, deeply inhaling her scent. He either refused to admit it or he just didn’t care. Instead, he pressed his face into _her_ pillow, not his own. And this time he wasn’t doing it to incite death, but rather to smell the sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo and minty freshness of her toothpaste. If he couldn’t enjoy the sensation of _touch_ , he could at least accept smell.

It worked. Quickly, he felt his eyelids grow heavy. And as he drifted into a peaceful sleep, he pictured her next to him, her even and steady breathing lulling him to sleep.

* * *

Tohru staggered home the following morning, absolutely exhausted. She was happy that it was a Saturday and she didn’t have to work or go to school. All she wanted to do was go home and go straight to her bed.

She had a miserable night of sleep. She did enjoy the time spent with her friends and was thrilled to spend the evening with them. It had certainly been too long that they’d been apart. But when it was time to sleep, she just stared at Hana-chan’s bed, reminded that while she did love the two women who were lying there, she would really rather _not_ spend the night with them. Especially when she could have been spending the night with someone else.

The thought made a blush creep to her cheeks. It was the first night in months she had spent away from Kyo. It was the first night in months she had fallen asleep without getting to enjoy her alone time with him. It was the first night in months she had fallen asleep _without_ having his hands all over her body, lighting a fire in the pit of her stomach and leaving her absolutely breathless.

She left Hana-chan’s house before even eating breakfast, citing a fake errand she had needed to run on the way home. Instead, she just wanted to be back in her comfort zone. She wanted to be back with her comfort person. It was early, but she sincerely hoped he was already awake. She selfishly wished he was waiting for her.

She tried not to be disappointed when she slipped into the quiet house. No one was awake yet. As she walked to her room, she briefly pressed her ear to his bedroom door, curious if he was already awake and reading or working out or doing homework in his room, but she was met with silence.

She stopped by the bathroom and brushed her teeth and loosened the braid that Hana-chan had tied into her hair the night before. She decided she would just quickly change her clothes and head downstairs to start breakfast. If she was lucky, Kyo would wake up first and she could spend time alone with him before the day had truly started.

Her breath stopped as she slid the door open to her room. She was met soft breathing and mussed orange hair. Kyo was there, sleeping in her bed, face and body totally relaxed surrounded by pink linens. She slid the door closed behind her and was content to just stare at him for a while, enjoying his handsome face and relaxed demeanor.

She quietly changed out of her school uniform and thought, briefly, about putting on a new outfit for the day. Instead, she chose to don a cozy t-shirt over her underwear and nothing else. It was one of his t-shirts, one that she had secretly stolen from his laundry basket long before she had even confessed her love for him. It practically swallowed her, but she didn’t care. Gently, she moved the blankets and laid down next to him.

He didn’t open his eyes, but instinctively he reached out and wrapped his arms around her. She snuggled into his chest and wondered if he was awake or still dreaming.

After a few minutes of silence, his raspy morning voice asked “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, but I missed you,” she whispered back. He didn’t respond, but he tightened his grip on her and nuzzled his head into the crevice of her neck. She waited a beat before asking him “What are you doing here?”

“Couldn’t sleep without you,” he responded and her lips curled into a smile. She lightly kissed the top of his head and closed her eyes. She nodded, agreeing with his sentiment, and allowed herself to drift off to sleep for another hour, wrapped up in his embrace. So they both missed a full night of sleep; at least they could make up for it in the morning.


End file.
